How the legislature went off the rails

We hope the tasteless episodes will end with the 21st Assembly.

The 21st National Assembly exhausted its last session Tuesday as poorly as it was throughout its four-year term. It managed to pass just six bills. A second vote to enable a special counsel probe into the death of a Marine last summer after a presidential veto was voted down at the final plenary session. The bills to rescue victims of rental fraud, recognize figures of the democracy movement and support Sewol ferry drowning victims were passed unilaterally by the majority Democratic Party (DP). But the bills are bound to be scrapped as President Yoon Suk Yeol will likely veto them as they lack bipartisan agreement. And so, the 21st National Assembly came to an end, wasting its term in extreme partisanship without any productive activity.

A handful of urgent bills were neglected because the governing People Power Party (PPP) boycotted standing committee meetings in protest of the DP’s insistence on the bill to activate an independent probe into the death of Marine Cpl. Chae Su-geun and the government’s handling of the affair. Other neglected bills include the K-Chips Act, bills supporting childcare and the AI Basic Act. These bills could have easily been legalized if rivalling parties put aside their differences, but instead they must go through the review process from the beginning at the incoming 22nd legislature.

The PPP is equally responsible for neglecting lawmaking activities because of its preoccupation to block the bill on the special probe on Chae’s death. How can it expect to seek the opposition’s cooperation when it disrupted legislative activity by boycotting for political purposes? The bill on pension reform also went down the drain because the PPP turned lukewarm at the last minute.

The 21st National Assembly set a number of infamous records. Since its opening in June 2020, the DP dominated chairs of all 18 standing committees. The DP monopolized the legislature, railroading controversial bills such as the three bills for tenants that go against market principles and revisions to the Prosecutors’ Office Act that stripped the office of its investigative powers. The law banning anti-Pyongyang leaflet dispatches to North Korea was found unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court last year. For the first time in history, the National Assembly endorsed a motion to dismiss the prime minister and bills to impeach sitting ministers, judge and prosecutors. The rate of passing bills was 6.6 percent, a record low.

The 21st Assembly cost 1.02 trillion won ($750 million) during its four-year term, including the salaries for lawmakers and their aides. What have they done for the people who paid for their service, except for bickering and slinginkg mud at each other? We hope the tasteless episodes will end with the 21st Assembly.